News & facts, re-imagined for kids

Did Humans Evolve From Fish?

Image Credit: Flickr User Frits Ahlefeld, via CC

Have you ever felt like you are a fish? That you love water and want to swim in it forever? Or maybe don an artificial tail and eat some kelp for the rest of your life? Then behold, this instinct is all natural and owes to our fishy past.

There is a lot of evidence that scientists have gathered to prove that humans have evolved from fish. And most interestingly it is hidden in every feature of our body. Let us examine our appearance and determine for ourselves whether it resembles that of a fish.

See that groove above your upper lip and just below your nose? It is there because when you were inside your mommy’s tummy, your face looked kind of fishy. Ha! Your lips and nostrils grew on the top of your head, and your eyes were located at the side of your head. You resembled an eel. Slowly and gradually before you came to this world, your features migrated and squeezed inwards to give your face the look it currently has. The only evidence left of that fishy face is that tiny divot above your lips, the philtrum.

Let us talk about dolphins in particular. They are like an intermediate species – they are mammals like us but look one hundred percent fish. And they are the second most intelligent animals in the world, first being us the humans. Our genes, intelligence, and behavior resemble that of a dolphin. Apart from genetics, our life-cycles are also very similar, from the bond dolphins form with members of their clan to the parent-child relationship.

Mommy Dolphins take special care of their babies and nurse them just like human mothers. Dolphins like humans also have a sense of self-awareness. Just like we recognize our faces when we look in a mirror, dolphins can also recognize themselves.

When you don’t get that mac and cheese that you have been craving for three days, won’t that reflect in your behavior. Similarly, a dolphin’s emotion also affects their lifestyle. Is that all a coincidence that almost all of our physical and genetic features resemble that of a dolphin? The answer is no! This similarity all owes to our fishy past – that humans have evolved from fish.

Now open your fingers wide and notice the webbing between them. Isn’t that very much similar to a fish’s fins? This webbing serves the same function in both humans and fish, allows us to swim above and under the water.

Image Credit, Flickr User Dvortygirl, via CC

Although we do not have scales on our body and have smooth skin instead, today we are very likely to see fish with no scales and smooth skin. Dolphins and whales, for example, have no scales, have a smooth body and are also mammals. See the resemblance with humans?

So maybe human were the fish who learned to walk and stay alive out of the water.

The fact is that not only humans, but if you observe the structure and development of other animals such as dogs, cats, and elephants, they also had a fishy beginning to their life inside their mommy’s tummies.

Looking at all these similarities can we not say that we all started off as fish and then developed, adapted or added other features. A fishy evolution indeed!